Trojan horses and tunneling nanotubes enable α-synuclein pathology to spread in Parkinson disease.

Abstract

In Parkinson disease (PD), Lewy bodies (LBs) form in the gut or nose and spread into the midbrain. A study in this issue indicates that the spread is due to lysosomes "infected" with prion-like alpha-synuclein (α-syn) transmitting from cell to cell via tunneling nanotubes (TNTs).